The three-dimensional reconstruction of Singapore’s topography based on records from 1924 and 2012 describes the breath-taking transformation of the island-state’s physical form over the last century. As the coastline expanded, hills disappeared and eventually sand started to be imported from abroad, Singapore became larger but flatter and more abstract. The fabrication of land should not be seen as merely a consequence of Singapore’s development process. Rather, Singapore’s model of progress relies on territorial transformation as its fundamental precondition.